Bra strap designs have been largely unchanged for decades. Women believe they must live with straps that dig into their shoulders to the point where it may result in numbness in their fingers as the straps each pressed on a nerve, straps that irritatingly drop off the shoulders, and straps that dig into the flesh around the upper torso, producing visible bra lines that show unaesthetically through outerwear.
Some bra designs have attempted to address one or more of these problems, but have never comprehensively and/or aesthetically addressed the various issues of the traditional paradigm. They may have produced a wider, but not significantly wider, strap, which would still dig into the shoulder and/or fall by pivoting off the shoulder, and which may have also presented a practical, industrial appearance or the brassiere may have been made as a less supportive stretch garment. Such garments do not teach the use of adjusting the strap length or angle. The stretchiness is the adjustment, but it offers only limited support, as it is so elastic and untailored in the cups, rather than firm with engineered, tailored, supportive, patterned or molded construction.
Traditional strap attachments commonly incorporate a ribbon-like strap with a slide buckle. At times the strap may be wider, but not very wide apparently due to the fact that they rely upon the traditional slide buckle strap adjustment method. Wider straps are either slightly wider versions of the traditional slide-buckle adjusting straps, or are of a soft elastic strap with less support.
Some strap contraptions have a very complicated, industrial unaesthetic embodiment, have a strap wider at the top to prevent straps digging into the shoulder. They also have an industrial appearance, and would pivot to drop off the shoulder. They show no method of length adjustment. If there is a very wide strap or garment style shoulder, it is not adjustable.
While some garments taught in the prior art address the problem of visible bra lines, but more in the manner of a tank garment rather than as an intrinsic part of the full-support bra design. Other tank tops that incorporate a bra, actually “shelf bra”, are not full support, and usually have the uncomfortably flesh-digging narrow straps resulting in less support than most stand-alone brassieres.
No prior art addresses all of the issues of the brassiere in one attractive, comprehensive embodiment including addressing: straps that dig into the shoulders, straps that pivot and drop off the shoulders, and straps that cause visible bra lines due to the welling up of flesh around the straps and other parts of the bra, that can also adjust to the wearers' size.
Furthermore, brassieres and other garments have traditionally been size and shape adjusted and connected using snaps, hooks, zippers, buckles, and other mechanical means, and may be employed in the embodiments illustrated in this application. A restickable or repositionable adhesive is also desirable, as it presents a smooth, thin profile, and offers a particular quality of flexibility in adjustment.
Prior art shows some adjunct uses of adhesive in garments, including brassieres, but does not show the restickable or repositionable variety in use with its particular advantages. In the prior art a backless, strapless bra with adhesive is taught were the adhesive is intended to stick the bra to the wearer's skin. The adhesive does not serve to adjust or connect a part or parts of the bra garment to itself as taught by the present invention. Additionally, it is taught in the prior art that an adhesive add-on may server to correct a rolling problem for larger women. The prior art does not teach, suggest, or make obvious the use a restickable or repositionable adhesive to adjust the bra for size, length, or angle for the wearer as taught by the present invention.